Video Creation
Why Create Videos?
Videos are a great way to engage the class on a new topic or concept - especially if you need to visually demonstrate something. Students can watch the video as many times as they like, at a time or place suitable for them. Videos can also save the teacher time - there may be occasions when it is easier to say what you want the class to do, instead of trying to explain by writing it down.
What Tools Can I Use?
Recording your PC Screen
ActivePresenter is a screen recording tool that lets you capture whatever you have open on screen, the interactions you make, as well as being able to record speech simultaneously. You can then save the screen recording as a video, to share publicly or with another person.
Using an iPad or Smartphone
iMovie is a simple video creation app available on Apple devices such as the iPad and iPhone. Whether you are building a themed trailer movie, or a video from scratch, iMovie allows you to add images, videos, text and sound to quickly stitch together your content into a video format.
Swivl is a piece of equipment that let's you easily record your lesson. Unlike a clunky video recorder at the back of the room - with a Swivl you can connect you your own iPad or smartphone and via the Swivl app record good quality video via the devices camera, perfect audio using the Swivl microphone that you wear as a lanyard around your neck, which the swivl will rotate around to follow in order to capture you the whole time you are walking around the room.
Classroom Ideas
Transform Weekly Pictures and Videos into Fun Themed Trailers
“What happens to all of the pictures and videos that you take in class each week - of student work, fun activities or complete projects? Why not use the content to easily create a fun, celebratory video that can be shared with the rest of the school or with parents?”
The idea is based on a superhero week that was happening in an early years setting. The iMovie tool, which is used to create fun and engaging videos, can be applied to many other scenarios.
The teacher collected many pictures and videos throughout the week, capturing of the students in their costumes, and wanted to share the material with pupils and parents through a fun resource.
Suitably, iMovie has a ‘Superhero’ trailer theme available in the app. The teacher replaced the editable text with appropriate captions to go along with the images and videos that were added to the trailer.
The video was a huge hit and the children have since been creating their own trailers and videos, The have been learning how to take pictures and videos of their adventures and with help from the teacher, using their own content to build a great resource that they can show to their peers and their parents.
Click here to learn how.
Voice Over Exam Preparation
“Imagine – instead of providing a photocopy of a past paper and having a discussion in class, if you could share a video with students which walks them through the key features of the paper.”
The idea of this activity is to create a video that students can watch as often as required, (possibly at home on their smartphone), with detailed commentary and suggestions from the teacher on how to approach it.
Students could also be asked to pause the video for a set number of minutes, while trying the question themselves as part of the recording. The approach could be used for whole exam papers or just for a small number of questions. As well as giving students useful commentary, it allows them to access an exam paper selected by the teacher, without referring to photocopies or having to download it themselves.
Click here to learn how.
Credit: F. Bischner, Malcolm Arnold Academy
Training Videos
ActivePresenter: Recording your Screen
How-to video for ActivePresenter - recording, cropping and saving!
Swivl: An Introduction
What Swivl is and why it is useful.
Swivl: From unboxing to using in 6 minutes
This is a follow up video to recap all the steps in setting up a Swivl from out of the box, to recording a film.
Swivl: Setting it up and recording video
From unboxing the unit to making the first recording.
Swivl: Using the app and uploading
Looking through the settings in the Swivl App, saving the video and uploading the movie - of course you could use as tool like iMovie to edit it first.